A scholar once said; “Creative well-wrought philanthropic programmes help not only the communities in which companies (donors) operate but also the companies (donors) themselves.”
The above quote can be likened to the magnanimity of the illustrious sons and daughters of Akama Oghe, in Ezeagu LGA of Enugu State as demonstrated on Saturday, 25th of April, 2020.
Over 400 indigent members of the community received food items and cash worth over 7,000.
Chief Sam Okafor, Chairman of the Palliatives Distribution Committee and Andrew Nwafor, Chairman of the Audit Committee in their reactions said they tried as much as possible to ensure that the people that needed the help got it. They also appreciated all the donors that made the event possible and assured them that their desire for parting with their scarce resources will be met.
Speaking to JOURNALIST101 one of the coordinators of the laudable initiative who craved for anonymity (as he doesn’t have the mandate to speak) said what they did was a way of cushioning the effect of the lockdown as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic on the members of their community.
“What we are doing as you can see is that we are reaching out to some selected members of our community who we feel needs this help at this time.”
Asked how the beneficiaries were selected, the source disclosed that they selected 70 beneficiaries from each of their traditional wards and that amounted to 140 per village thus 420 persons benefited from the largess which he defined as the first phase of the distribution.
He went further to commend the member representing Ezeagu Constituency in the state House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Chima Obieze for coming up with the initiative and also thanked the over 120 persons from their community that contributed the funds.
When contacted for his comment on the event, Hon. Obieze who declined to comment initially said he’s happy for what has happened in their community.
When asked further question, Obieze said he can’t speak further on the gesture, in his words; “This is not political and i had no intent of playing politics with it when i reached out to our people. What we did was purely on communal effort and I’m not in any position to speak further on it as I’m not the community leader.”
Mr Joseph Uzodigwe, who spoke on behalf of the traditional wards Chairmen in Akama-Oghe said their was no form of discrimination nor bias in the selection process.
“What you see here are the people that needs this the most, it will be a thing of condemnation if any form of illegality is perpetrated in this noble gesture of our illustrious sons and daughters.”
“We, thank all the donors for having the large heart to give to the needy,” Uzodigwe concluded.
Each of the beneficiaries went home with 10kg bag of rice, 3 tubbers of yam and N3,000 cash.
Below are some of the pictures from the event;
